The counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan has failed, and it is time for President Obama to abandon it.
In the wake of the horrific incident where a US soldier killed 16 innocent Afghans, and just weeks after American Marines were caught on tape desecrating the body of a dead enemy, and a pile of Korans were burned, that much is clear. After these three incidents, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's core argument that NATO Forces aren't an occupier and only in the country for security has been undermined.
This means that not only is he losing the trust of his own people, but the Afghan people are increasingly seeing Americans as the enemy, not friends. There were violent protests in the aftermath of the Koran burnings, in which 30 people died, and American troops were met with hostility. Following the killing of Afghan innocents this weekend, it came as no surprise that the Taliban called for retribution. But, more noteworthy was the Afghan parliament passing a resolution condemning the "brutal and inhuman act." The only way Karzai can regain support is to stand up against Americans, which is what his people clearly want.
Without the support and trust of the Afghan people and their government, counter-insurgency has failed and is pointless to continue. Its entire purpose is to provide security for the population so services can be rendered by government and peace can be brokered with the opposition. This is something most right-wing pundits directly assault when they stand against apologizing for burning Korans, and defending the desecration of the dead. They don't understand our mission when they can support actions the incite violence against our military.
It is important to note that this is certainly not reflective of all of our men and women in uniform. 99.99 percent of them act honorably, and carry out their missions without doing anything wrong. So, this isn't a failure of our military. But it is, however, a failure of our strategy.
I opposed the surge of troops into Afghanistan when it was announced by President Obama in 2010. I said then, and I'll repeat it again, that counter-insurgency on a timeline is pointless. Gaining the support of a people and securing a country like Afghanistan could take decades, and it certainly doesn't squeeze into any timeline. The troops were only one part of a solution. But that never took into consideration Pakistani influence or how corruption in the Karzai administration would affect a negotiated peace with the Taliban.
Now, a rising US deficit and sinking public support for the war make the strategy untenable. Our military is neither meant nor able to win over and secure an entire country, especially on a decades-long commitment combined with budget cuts. And now, when just a few of our troops make errors, part of the strategy comes crashing down. The more time we spend putting our men and women in a stressful and protracted counter-insurgency operation, the more we'll see a few bad apples screw everything up.
VoteVets.org has always supported a counter-terror mission in the region. Counter-terror operations target the enemy where they are, and take them out. It's the strategy that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaeda targets around the world. It costs less in money and lives. It doesn't deplete our troops and our military. And it doesn't put military men and women in the position of having to win over an entire country, under the real risk that a few bad troops could topple the entire house of cards. The past two months, body desecration, Quran burnings, and killings have now seriously put in jeopardy our ability to negotiate a counter-terror mission with the Afghan government, a mission we should have begun in 2010.
Some may say that counter-insurgency worked in Iraq, so it can work in Afghanistan. That isn't true. First, Iraq was a fairly modern nation, with an infrastructure, unlike Afghanistan. There wasn't nearly as much to build up. But secondly, and more importantly, it took the Sunni Awakening -- a revolt by the Sunni population against an insurgency -- to put Iraq on the path that ended with our redeployment. In short, Iraqis wanted it for themselves. There is absolutely no indication that Afghans are even close to that point. And we cannot know if they ever will be.
That all given, and given the increasingly antagonistic atmosphere being created in Afghanistan, it is time to employ a mission in Afghanistan that actually works, and leave a residual force in the region that focuses on destroying real threats to America. The sooner President Obama announces that, the better off our military and America will be.
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That's not to say that I don't think they could persuade a majority of American voters that such an urgent shift in tactics and strategy should be supported ... if they put the requisite effort into it, I think they can. My only reservation is that they have not thus far demonstrated that they are particularly capable of presenting strong arguments to support their case on any number of critical issues over the last few years, despite having all of the facts on their side.
Sadly, poor messaging and communication skills would have been the last thing I would have expected from this administration ...
>>>That all given, and given the increasingly antagonistic atmosphere being created in Afghanistan, it is time to employ a mission in Afghanistan that actually works, and leave a residual force in the region that focuses on destroying real threats to America. The sooner President Obama announces that, the better off our military and America will be.
People get so caught up in the idea of winning and losing that they just dont see things clearly and I see this being the case.
This is not a win or lose situation. This is a situation that will be determined by those that live there and there is no amount of power or force that will change that fact.
Afghanistan belonged to the people of that Country before us and will again be there's once we leave. Personally, I think the President was rolled by our Military for about the first 2 and 1/2 years in office. It is time to leave there. We have no further business worth doing over there so bring all the troops out. We owed only the Taliban and Al Quaida to include Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. They have all been paid with the exception of Omar. It is past time we leave and 2014 is way too past time.......bc
The governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and numerous other Middle East countries are all mostly controlled by religion, not government. The recent events in Afghanistan such as the burning of the Koran's, urinating on the dead, and the unfortunate murder of civilians will only galvanize the entire country and Islamic religion even more against us. We will never be accepted as long as we continue to occupy the country. It is not worth the time, money or additional loss of life to do so. We have enough things we can spend our money on back in our own country. We have infrastructure to fix, education to upgrade, and an economy to repair. I do not see the sense of going to war with Iran next. It's time to let the rest of the world take care of itself for a while. We need to concentrate on taking care of our own country, which has been on the decline for a while. If we reinvested the trillions we would be spending on wars back into our own country it would do nothing but good.
Unfortunately, this is a religious war and cannot be won for that very reason. The Taliban is a radical Islamic part of the Muslim religion. Afghanistan is mostly a Muslim country. While all Muslims may not be extremist, they are taught from birth that Western religions and cultures should be eliminated, possibly tolerated, but never accepted. After 9/11 when US forces first attacked the Taliban, most Afghans were happy to see the harsh rule of the Taliban eliminated from their daily lives. This does not mean that they gave up their Islamic views. While the US military has no problem quickly defeating any military force on earth, they are still unable to change the culture, religion or way of thinking of the countries that they invade. The longer the US stays in any occupied country, the stronger the likelihood that that country will turn against us. Our exit strategy has always been our biggest problem. Unless religion is eliminated as a root cause, the war can never be won in the long term. Our country does not practice genocide, hence the only way to eliminate religion is thru science and education. Unfortunately, this approach will obviously take decades if not longer to take hold.
"....counter-insurgency has failed and is pointless to continue. Its entire purpose is to provide security for the population so services can be rendered by government and peace can be brokered with the opposition" has no business writing about what is happening in Afghanistan. The mere fact that a person has been "in Iraq" or Afghanistan gives that person no particular insight into what is happening there. The US is in Iraq for its oil and in Afghanistan for rare earths and oil pipelines. The reason we aren't in Syria is the lack of oil/natural resources. Members of the military who are serving in Iraq/Afghanistan have to be told "some" reason for our presence there. The cover is always that it is for "good/humanitarian" reasons. This is a national self-delusion in the USA. Outside the US most all believe we are there for $$$$$ (in the form of oil or minerals). Yet 80+% of Americans, including most all of the military, have been consistently propagandized that we take it on faith that our doings in those countries are motivated by our desire to "help people". If "people" means ExxonMobil/Chevron.
Nine years later, 600,000 innocent Iraqi civilians are in their graves, Iraq is in rubble, 4,000,000 refugees fled, and almost 5,000 Americans are dead. All for the Texas tea, bubbling crude. When you start from a premise of self-delusion, Mr. Stolz, the rest of the analysis can only suffer.
The war in Iraq was illegal and I am positive it was the top of the GOP and their masters list of dreams. They pleased the Saudi's who pleased them back I am sure. It also played into the Defense and Military organizations. Many weapons have been battle tested and there has been a huge expenditure of all types of things necessary for an army to wage war..
Now we have a depleted military, in not just troops, but a whole host of things like million dollar bombs and trucks and helicopters and munitions. You name it, the Military will need to be resupplied. The amount of wear and tear on thinks like jeeps or tanks, bradleys or planes. Hell the Department of Defense will be demanding more money every year for another decade when it will begin again......bc
the Americans are doing this because GOD wants them to,
remember what GWB said! They are on a CRUSADE!
My guests for the first time ...
how about remembering
who put those troops where they are
TEN YEARS AGO!